Thomas Brott, MD is the Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Professor in Neurosciences at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Brott completed his MD degree at the University of Chicago, his medical internship at Beth Israel Hospital, and his neurology residency at the Harvard Longwood Neurology Program. Dr. Brott is the principal designer of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, which is used worldwide as the examination tool for patients with stroke. He and his stroke team performed one of the first studies that identified the potential of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) as an acute treatment for ischemic stroke. Subsequent studies by Dr. Brott and others led to approval of tPA as a safe and effective acute treatment for stroke by the FDA. Dr. Brott’s team was the first to characterize the first minutes following onset of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage. He was principal investigator of the NIH-funded CREST trial, comparing carotid stenting and endarterectomy. Currently, Dr. Brott is the principal investigator of the CREST-2 trial, comparing stenting, endarterectomy, and intensive medical management as treatments for asymptomatic stroke with 123 active medical centers across the US and Canada. Dr. Brott has served as chair of the Stroke Council of the American Heart Association, vice-chair of the National Stroke Association, and chair of the Advisory Committee to the Neurological Devices Panel of the FDA. In recognition of his work, Dr. Brott received the 2013 Clinical Research Prize and the 2017 Research Achievement Award conferred by the American Heart Association. He received the Distinguished Investigator award from the Mayo Clinic in 2014.